All things film and TV

Net TV Project: The One Show Analysis

For the ‘Net TV’ project we’ve been asked to watch and analyse an episode of The One Show, considering several aspects as a way to research the style and content of magazine TV shows so we have an idea of how to go about creating our own.

The Look of the Show: The show has a very bright and vibrant look and feel, the scenery and furniture is all modern and brightly coloured. It’s a show mainly aimed at adults and middle aged people, but the bright colours and vibrance of the show make it appeal also to the younger generation. The sofa’s are situated in front of windows overlooking London, which gives a sense of the location and is also iconic, associated largely with the BBC and British TV in general. The windows also break up the claustrophobic studio feel and add to the brightness, and also gives a connection to the outside world. It looks stylish and bright without being over the top; the colours of each part of the studio are chosen carefully so that they don’t clash.

Choice of Presenters: In the episode I watched, Chris Evans and Alex Jones presented the show. I also looked back over photos and videos of previous shows to get an idea of the sorts of presenters that are on the show. The similarity between all of them is that they are adults probably between the ages of 30 to 50. Like the show they are often vibrant, stylish and current, which gives a relatable and positive representation of the target audience whilst also appealing to them. For instance if the show was aimed at adults between the age of 30 to 50 it wouldn’t work to have presenters in their early twenties, it’s important that the presenters are relevant to the target audience. They are all well known TV presenters and personalities, all from popular, quite mainstream shows with a history in similar studio TV shows, making them recognisable but also suited to the type of show.

Set Design: The set is bright and vibrant, with a lot of set features that light up in bright, neon colours. The colours are all bright but go well together, it gives it a fun and vibrant feel. The sofas and furniture have been chosen specifically to go with the set design and aid the bright feel. Apart from the use of lots of colour the set design is quite minimal, this is probably quite useful to bear in mind for our TV production as we will be able to get away with having few items of furniture which helps with a small budget. The bright colours fill the space and there a few ‘frills’ and little fussiness like plants, ornaments etc.

Music and Graphics: The opening title looks very similar to the BBC title/logo maintaining the BBC house style and giving it a brand identity. The background is red and the writing white and I believe the font is the same as that of the BBC logo itself, if not it’s similar. The title looks modern as it’s rendered in 3D and moves and again it’s bright working with the style of the show. The music is a short piece with vocals, a trumpet type instrument, drums and some kind of backing instrument like a keyboard, it’s up beat and jazzy again giving the show a vibrant feel. I suppose this vibrant up beat style is appealing to the audience because a lot of TV aimed at middle aged people can be patronisingly dull because that’s what they are assumed to be like so the up beat intro and the bright colours are a way to lighten things and maybe make the audience feel young; the overall effect is quite a fun and up beat show.

Content: The content is quite light hearted but touches on serious issues and also the show has quite a focus on charity. They invite inspiring people be them celebrities or just people who have done things for their communities to share their stories; I suppose in a sense it doesn’t focus on the superficial and just invite famous celebrities to talk about show biz, it’s ‘classier’ than that. The content isn’t really age specific and like most magazine shows with a broad range of audience members there’s something for everyone. There is a light hearted feel to all the content, and much of it is uplifting, taking the audience away from hum drum daily life and the miserable stories in the news.

Guests: The guests vary greatly, the episode I watched for reference had Henry Winkler (The Fonz) and a lady who wasn’t a celebrity but had gained recognition for helping her son and the gang he was a part of to change their lives by providing a place to stay and be safe. Inviting ‘real’ people as well as celebrities makes it more grounded and less ‘show biz’ which again makes it relatable for the audience. As far as I’m aware the guests are often within the age bracket of the presenters and target audience too, or at least have an involvement with something that the target audience would relate to (i.e. many young people wouldn’t know The Fonz but adults and middle aged people would remember it from their childhood) making the guests relevant to the audience. It probably wouldn’t work for a show aimed at people in their 40’s to have Justin Bieber as a guest, for example.

VTs (filmed inserts): The VT’s all had some kind of relevance to the theme of the show. There was a VT of the woman who had helped her son and his friends change their lives so that the audience could see visually what she had done rather than just watch a verbal interview with her. There were clips of Happy Days which obviously relate to Henry Winkler. The show has a kind of theme each time so the guests and the topics all link in some way. The VT’s are all relevant to either the guests themselves or to the theme of the show. There are quite a few VT’s ar fairly regular intervals which takes the audience out of the studio making the show more interesting.

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Natasha Harmer

Writer/Blogger and full time marketing officer, currently living in Walsall, UK. Just an average 20-something; slave to three guinea pigs and one fiancé, just muddling through life and enjoying the little things.
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